Our Roles in the Twisted Play Called Life
by sleepy.cat.zzz
Summary: When Naruto's sold to the underground of the ninja community, he discovers that he and Gaara aren't two of a kind. Old enemies become new friends, monumental lies are uncovered, and our fav foxboy arrives just in time to watch this warped paradise crumble
1. ticking away the moments

Congrats, you have stumbled onto the first of several (dozen?) chapter of a Naruto fic. And personally, to have found this, you must have stumbled and fallen off into a bottomless hole. Well, cheiro and review (pwease?)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and company, their world, the organizations in that world, or anything else you read in the manga. I do own the characters I bothered to give personalities to and the organizations I put them in and I shall flame you to hell if you use them.

NOTES: okay…I never really liked how Naruto was my age and could do so much neat stuff, so I added 4 to each of their ages, making them 16 or so.

This story takes place at about p15 of the 27th volume and about 11 months later, i.e. the start of the next chunin exam.

_**START HERE**_

Itachi grabbed Naruto's arm, stopping him from reaching Mitsu's disintegrating body. Naruto turned and snarled at him, canines elongated, eyes red.

"Kyuubi, Naruto, don't go out there." Itachi said, eyeing the liquid winds of chakra chewing everything within thirty feet of the dying teen. Sasuke hurtled out of the sky, landing with a painful thump beside them.

"Am I too late?" he asked his brother, brown black wings rustling to remove the loose dirt.

"Depends on what you wanted to see." Itachi said solemnly…

But it probably would be better to start at the beginning, so many long months ago, practically a lifetime away for the once upon a time demon child of the Hidden Leaf. It was suppose to be a relatively normal Chun-nin exam, but then of course, nothing is normal once you mix in demons. This tale could have started earlier, at the birth of a woman destined for greatness, or the slaughter of a fox demon protecting his family, or even at the infusion of the second Uchina, but that's like trying to tie a knot without any string, fun but fruitless. You know the story of Uzumaki Naruto, that is your platform of knowledge. Don't get too attached, what you will learn will probably knock the base out.

_** START HERE**_

Naruto cracked his neck and grinned. He, Sakura, Shino, Hinata, Neji, and TenTen had made it to the final round of the Chunin exam. Also there were two of the three Sand Siblings (Gaara wasn't present); a quartet from Cloud, four gaudily dressed genins from different villages and a heavily cloaked person whose alliance was unrevealed.

"Congratulations!" Gai, who was supervising the third test, started in his generally loud and annoying fashion.

"You youthful ninjas have made it to the preliminary round of the third exam!" It was here he inserted a "nice-guy pose" and blinded everyone not wearing sunglasses or use to it, in which case those persons (Neji and TenTen) simply sweat-dropped.

"This is a sudden death style tai-jutsu match with any weapon available but no gen- or nin- jutsus. And so that no country is misrepresented, would those people under gen-jutsus please release them." Naruto looked surprised at his fellow exam takers and saw one of the cloud shobito and the three of the assorted ones release their enchantments to reveal five ridiculously dressed ninjas with unrecognizable forehead protectors that had rough edges like they had been carved in after the metal had hardened. Gai stared at the symbol, which looked vaguely like a bat, until he composed himself to yell start.

The first match was Sakura against Neji. Sakura put on an impressive display using a variety of her special bombs that she had cooked up to attack different systems. But they were easily blown away with the Heavenly Spin. When Neji came at her with the Gentle Fist, she was able to dodge about 20 percentof the attacks, but80 percentwas too many hits if she wanted to win. Soon, she was swamped by the Gentle Fist techniques but was able to resign before fainting or suffering too much internal damage.

Next up was Naruto vs. Shino. Shino had the obvious advantage with his bugs counting as ninja tools, and Naruto couldn't use his enormous chakra. However, Shino hadn't considered that Naruto would think of simply gathering the chakra into different parts of his body. Naruto did though, and was able to give Shino a good kick to the chin after an explosive jump that would've landed him 10 feet past the bug user if he weren't there. After that, he tried a technique similar to Rock Lee's Lotus, which effectively sent poor Shino into a nice sized crater into the floor. But instead of hitting Shino, Naruto had hit a bug double and the real Shino appeared behind him. When he tried to overwhelm Naruto through the sheer number of his chakra eating bus, Naruto sent powerful waves of chakra out and the bloated bugs fell useless to the ground. After that, another Lotus style kick to the real Shino ended the battle in Naruto's favor. But, like Lee would, he found it hard to walk after using a Lotus.

Naruto ended up missing one of the bat ninja fight against a cloud because of a torn ligament, but was told that the bat nin, Kaiko, pulled out something that looked a bend pipe with a bulge at the bend and did something that resulted in a ball of light and a chunk of flesh being torn out the Cloud nin. The match barely lasted long enough for Gai to jump up to the stands before he had to jump back.

He was able to make it to Hinata's fight against Kankuro. Hinata, who had grown much more confident inside the ring but still wouldn't talk a full sentence to him without stuttering, started in the Gentle Fist position. Kankuro, seeing that he would probably be crushed in close combat, instantly put his newest puppet, a tiger, between him and the Huyga. Hinata, seeing that her opponent was out of her reach threw a kunai towards his lower body. As he directed his tiger's deadly jaws and upper torso towards the ground to catch in its jaws, Hinata ran and jumped off its head and landed right in front of her opponent. After cutting of the chakra holes in his arms, the jutsu specialist forfeited before the smaller girl could beat him to a pulp.

After a brief break, were Naruto congratulated Hinata on her stunning victory, and became incredibly surprised when she turn a brilliant shade of red and mumbled and stuttered her way through "thank you and you too," before shoving a steaming cup of tea into his hands and scuttling off, the matches continued.

The next match was the cloaked stranger (introduced as Horo) vs. another one of the Cloud nins. As the starting call sounded, the cloak fluttered to the floor as the previously cloaked figure plunged a kunai into his opponent's stomach. Just as fast, the black blur that was Horo's long hair dotted with white feathers disappeared back under the cloak as he slowly make his way up the stairs as his opponent was carried off.

"Oh my god." Naruto said, gripping the railing with white knuckles, "How can he be so heartless."

"He's the Gaara of the year." Hinata muttered to herself.

The next match was another Bat nin against the last Cloud nin. It started with the Cloud girl running at the Bat nin, who pulled a long pin out of her roll of hair. When fully unrolled, her hair, contained in three braids, reached the floor. After jamming the pin at the Cloud nin, who dodged, she spun around in a whirlwind of off-white locks, catching the Cloud nin with the jade beads attached to the ends. As the Cloud nin recovered, the Bat nin came up behind her and tied the Cloud girl up effectively with the braids. The match came to an end when the Cloud girl turned blue form the lack of oxygen because of the loop that crossed her windpipe.

The second-last match of the preliminary was a female Bat nin (introduced as Mitsu) against TenTen. TenTen started by throwing a wide assortment of weaponry at her. Some nicked or cut her but she dodged most. By now the dark haired girl had been backed into a wall. TenTen, confident in her victory, aimed a throwing knife at the large red "O" printed on her opponent's shirt.

"Man, that's like putting a bull's-eye on your chest," Naruto heard Temari mention to her brother. The blond smirked as he thought smutty, hormonal thoughts involving a bull's-eye and busts, but I digress. The black-haired girl failed to catch that one, but was able to miss anything vital. A tortured look crossed her face and she pulled the long knife from her shoulder, it was soaked up to the hilt and left an ugly wound. She clumsily threw it at TenTen, who smiled wider and caught it lazily.

"I can't believe she made it so far if this is the best she can do." Neji said,

"P-Please don't insult Mitsu." someone stuttered behind him, looking back, Naruto saw that it was the dark-haired male Bat nin. The things that he was told about, the bend pipe, or at least, one of them, were hung within easy reach on thick vinyl straps. A scream diverted his attention from the murderous inventing teen back to the fight where a blood red…blob was creeping up her arm from the newly cleaned throwing knife, and no matter how many time she swatted, scrapped, or scratched at it, it didn't stop moving mindlessly. It crept up her arm, neck, and onto her face. Finally, as it reached her right eye, she slapped it off. But when it fell off her face, there was an undeniable lack of the mate of the dark brown eye on the other side of TenTen's nose. Instead, a thin, fleshy membrane was stretched over the eyehole. When TenTen felt this, she started screaming all the more. Those who weren't staring, aghast at the horror, followed the red blob as it rolled toward the injured Bat nin, who looked exhausted like someone who had used a lot of chakra. Meanwhile, TenTen was yelling something like

"I resign! I resign! Get me my eye back! I resign!" Gai ended the battle, and Mitsu nodded toward TenTen and the blob moved back toward her, an eye that wasn't there before focused on her. Then, it jumped and hit her face. Then it dribbled off her face as a liquid, staining her shirt and leaving everyone shocked.

The final match was Temari against Naturu, the final Bat nin. Straight after the starting call, Temari pulled her fan out and unfurled it, small dust devils rising at the slightest flick of the oversized accessory. Giving it a hefty wave, she sent a billow of air toward the neon-haired boy, who held his ground with visible chakra around his feet. Seeing that her ranged attack didn't seem to be doing any good, she adopted a slight pout and flicked her fan shut. Jumping toward the taller boy, she swung the lethal block of wood at him. Jumping away, he flicked a brightly coloured and stout wooden cylinder at her face in an arc. Leaning back, she let it pass between her and her fan, but it came back and tried to hit her again, and again, and again. Each time, she simply let it pass just past her nose. Suddenly, it snapped tight to her fan. When Naturu jerked his hands, strings that were attached the yo-yo wrapped around the top of Temari's fan and the one he had wrapped around the bottom yanked it out of her hands. It soared through the air until the Bat nin had it in his clutches. Opening it, he sent a wave of air that encompassed Temari's entire half of the stadium, sending her flying back. After hitting the wall painfully and sliding down, she felt a heavy weight on her legs and neck. Opening her eyes that had closed from the pain of hitting the wall, she found her opponent standing on her knees with her fan at her throat.

"Yield?" he asked too cheerfully. She nodded, a hard task considering what was on her neck.

"Winner: Naturu." Gai announced.

"And now the preliminaries for the third round of the Chunin exams are over!"

_**STOP HERE **_

Sometime between the...

A/N: I said stop dammit! Beleive the author when s/he says stop! And just to make sure you feel horrible about reading when you should have stopped and jumped to this blip, those are the real first three words. bwahahahahahahaha!

Well, thanks for reading this piece of cra...eative writing. Please tell me if i should bother keeping this up or trash the rest of it. Pwease?

Feel the hypnotic pull of the little purple button...you are feeling sleepy...


	2. that make up a dull day

to whoever reads this: congrats for making it past chapter one! you'd be surprised how many people don't...well, since i didn't get any reviews for the last chapter (the first two were for the first version of this, so yeah...) well...enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and company, their world, the organizations in that world, or anything else you read in the manga. I do own the characters I bothered to give personalities to and the organizations I put them in and I shall flame you to hell if you use them.

_** Start Here**_

Sometime between the customary month between the technical second and third rounds, Naruto started training with Hinata, Kiba, and Lee. Soon after, they started to go to tea (and ramen) shops after training and soon after that, skipped training and just went places because they felt like it. On their way to one such outing (after a hard day's training), they were discussing the competition for Naruto and Hinata in the third round of the Chunin exam.

"It's kinda funny how half of the competitors are from the weird Bat place." Naruto commented.

"Apparently, they're from the supposedly extinct Shadow Village." Lee said, looking slightly wide-eyed into the distance in the general direction of their destination.

"But they're all really strong." Hinata mumbled.

"How do you know thick-brows?" Kiba demanded.

"I heard Gai-sensei and Anko-sensei talking about it when went to collect my pay-check." Lee replied, not taking his eyes off the imaginary outdoor theater they were heading towards.

"I don't understand how ninjas that strong could've stayed hidden." Hinata commented louder this time, glancing at the sky, or at least, she would be if her eyes had pupils.

"Well, weird things happen at these Chunin exams, remember our first?" Naruto asked, inducing shuddered from those who remembered cleaning up the aftermath and hearing the stories of the epic battles.

"Well, we can just hope this year won't be so crazy." Kiba said solemnly. They walked in silence for a bit until the residence loud mouth broke it.

"Last one to the theater is sharpening all my kunai!" Naruto yelled, running ahead.

"I can't lose to a loser like you!" Kiba yelled, running after the blond, Akamaru in tow.

"If I do not make it to the theater first, I will run around the village on my hands 20 times." Lee yelled, frantically racing after the pair. Hinata just smiled and started jogging, watching the boys move to rooftops when they found that the streets were too crowded.

When the small girl finally made it to the hastily erected stage with natural seating, she found her friends had already found great seats high in a tree.

"Haha! Hinata has to clean all my kunai!" Naruto laughed, goofy grin on his face, not noticing the light blush that spread across her nose.

"I hear that they're playing something called Midsummer Night's Dream." Kiba said, staring intently at the stage.

It turns out that Hinata made it just in time. At that moment, a person wearing plain white clothing and a no-face mask appeared around the backdrop of the inside of an impressive house. He placed a large sign that said "Act1 Scene 1, London-city" on a shelf built into the stage, bowed and left. As the audience started to fidget, a horrible scream wrenched the air and a girl with beautiful umber locks in a wonderfully embroidered long dress came running on stage right.

"Farther, why must I marry Demetrius, I love Lysander." she screeched to a portly man who walked on after her.

"I've chosen Demetrius to be your groom Hermia, and I won't change my mind."

"But Demetrius and Lysander are of equal rank and wealth!" the poor love-struck girl wailed.

"What is this disturbance?" demanded a clean-shaven man who walked in with a haughty looking woman on his arm.

"My Lord, I simply have an unruly daughter who won't accept my decision." the short, portly man said, bowing low at the waist.

"An unruly daughter? Egeus, you know what this means." 'My Lord' said, "She can either marry the man you have chosen for her, join a nunnery and live out her days in a cloistered convent a virgin, or be put to death, for disobey your farther is a crime." he then paused while the audience and Hermia gasped, "I expect your answer at my wedding in two weeks' time. And I don't expect to be reminded of this matter by yelling in my halls." then he left with he's bride.

"Well, you heard the Lord; I hope you will choose the choice that will be most beneficial my daughter." Egeus said, walking off in the opposite side from the couple. Hermia sank to the floor and started to sob. Someone started calling her name from off stage and a boy with flaming red hair that was spiked up and was generally attractive arrived. He raced to the girl on the floor.

"Hermia, Hermia, what is wrong?" he asked.

"O Lysander, my father will not agree to let us wed. What is more, if I do not marry Demetrius, then I must join a convent or be put to death." Hermia sniffed.

"Then we shall run away! My aunt, who treats me as she would her son, has a property 20 leagues from this place. Let us set out tonight, under the cover of darkness, from this place of dashed hopes!" Lysander roared to the audience. "But first," he continued, voice now soothing, "we must part, and not see each other 'till nightfall. We cannot tell a soul of our scheme, darling."

"May I tell Helena, who is dearer than a sister to me?" Hermia asked attentively, tears still in her eyes,

"No sweet, not a soul can know of our fight. We'll meet at the edge of the woods, at dusk sweet Hermia, we shall reunite at dusk." He kissed her hand and dashed off the stage. Hermia then started a monolog about how she and Lysander would be happy and safe until the end of time before exiting too. After the applause had died down, a door in the backdrop opened and a pale dark-haired girl slipped out who looked strangely familiar.

"Oh my, what ever shall I do?" she asked the audience, "I, Helena, have heard this plot to rid my beloved of his bride. Shall I tell her betrothed what my dearest friend plans? Or shall I keep quiet and let her leave with our trust intact?" she paced worriedly across the stage.

"I know!" she suddenly cried, "I shall tell my beloved Demetrius, telling him I know when and where his bride intends to elope. And then, even though my friendship with Hermia will be broken, I will be able to spend at least a few hours with the one closest to my heart." she finished with some dramatic actions before running off, calling Demetrius. Naruto finally remembered where he had seen the dark haired girl. She had beaten TenTen in the Chunin exam, what was she doing, acting in a traveling troop?

While he was off in thought, a new backdrop slid into place, this one of dense forest clearing. The white-clad person came back on and replaced the sign with "Act 1 Scene 2-Enchanted Forest". What caused Naruto to join the world of the living again was a gasp from Hinata.

"What?" he asked her, she pointed to the stage, where Helena had entered with a composed looking boy, presumably Demetrius, it was to the boy that the frightened girl was pointing,

"That's Kaiko, the one with the weird fire-pipe," she said in a stage whisper. Looking at the boy, who was currently grilling poor Helena, who was obviously smitten with him, about the legitimacy of her claim about the eloped lovers, he wondered how such a boy, who couldn't be much older than him, was able to devise a weapon that would end a battle within three seconds. After the two exited the stage, a boy with neon-coloured hair slid down on of the support beams. He was in a torn, brightly coloured outfit, feathers, strings of beads, and other cheap knick-knacks dangling from his person and was instantly recognizable as the kid who beat Temari, Naturu.

"What an egoistic pig!" he started "He's got a perfectly gorgeous girl hanging off his arm and he's stuck on one crush!"

"Oberon, you aren't planning on interfering again." said a girl, dressed in a similar manner to Oberon, but her 6 feet of hair way dotted with long, thin braids and flowers, draping herself over his shoulders. Once again, she, and her incredibly long off-white hair would be noticeably anywhere; it was another of the Bat nins from the Chunin exam.

"Of course not, Tatiana." Oberon/Naturu said, fiddling with an end of a braid.

"Good," she said, yanking it out of his grasp, "because the last time you messed with mortals' love lives I ended up falling in love with an ass." she finished, sweeping across the stage.

"Puck," Oberon said after the last antiqued white hair left the stage, "Puuck, I know you're there, do me a favor and meddle for me." he held up a flower, "I want you to sprinkle the Cupid flower's pollen, which will make anyone fall in love with the first thing you see, into the face of a male mortal with a beautiful girl with him, can you do that?" Naruto leaned forward, eager for the entrance of a fellow trickster. 'Puck' jumped down from over the top of the backdrop and the blond reeled. For dressed in fairy garb and looking a tad more coloured then when he left was Uchiha Sasuke.

_** Stop here**_

The rest of the play

I said stop! didn't you realize that from the last chapter? Well, if you enjoyed, clicky the pretty button at the bottom, it sounds really shallow, but i bask in your kinds words, and i wish there were the think that keep me writing. however, if that were the case, i'd be rather starved right now, but a guy can dream, can't she?


	3. you fritter and waste

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and company, their world, the organizations in that world, or anything else you read in the manga. I do own the characters I bothered to give personalities to and the organizations I put them in and I shall flame you to hell if you use them.

_** Start Here **_

The rest of the play was lost on Naruto. He couldn't stop wondering why Sasuke had joined a traveling theater and why the people he had seen ruthlessly beat up veteran ninjas were performing along side him.

He was able to ponder through another scene and another act, and only came to when the audience started clapping, yelling, and in general, signaling the end of a good play. The actors filed onstage, and yes, there, sandwiched between the very loud Hermia (taking her bows as Yuki) and Oberon/the Lord of London (Naturu) was his ex-pale friend, a slight, forced smile on his face.

"Excuse me!" Da Ten (Tatiana) "but we do not demand ticket fees, and are able to run our theater on kind donations from audiences who loved our show, so if you enjoyed A Midsummer Night's Dream, please, drop whatever you feel you can afford into the hat our stage hand is managing."

"Adieu, adieu, parting is such we sorrow!" Lysander (Keiyo) recited as they all took their last bow before vanishing with a slight poof.

"Did anyone find Puck to be too familiar, actually, the whole cast?" Naruto asked after he dropped his money into the mask the no-face person who changed the scene cards was wearing, not looking at the stagehand.

"Most of them were competing in the Chunin exam." Hinata said, just loud enough to be heard.

"Really?" Kiba asked, Akamaru barking.

"But now that you mention it Naruto, that Yuri did look familiar." Lee said.

"Yuri?" Naruto asked

"That's what they said Puck's real name is." Lee said.

"He looked kinda like that Uchiha kid." Kiba said, Akamaru barking his agreement. When Akamaru didn't stop barking, everyone looked in the directions of the barks. The white puppy was now growling at the silver-haired ninja heading their way.

"Yo," he said, coming to a stop in front of the genin quartet.

"Hey Naruto," Kakashi continued, "The Hokage wanted to see you about something, said it's urgent." he then continued on his way.

"Ummm…guess I'll see you guys later." Naruto said apologetically.

"Don't worry about it. If the 5th wants to see you now, then you go." Kiba said, Akamaru nodding from his spot on his head.

"Thanks; see you tomorrow?" he said, reaching the crossroads where they would part.

"We'll be seeing you, but you won't be seeing us." Kiba said, bizarrely cryptic.

"Why do you say that Kiba-kun?" Hinata asked

"Because tomorrow's the third round of the Chunin exam!" Lee yelled, startling passers-by.

"Wow, a month sure has gone by fast." Naruto said, surprised.

"We'll be rooting for you!" Lee said, waving as he took his turn.

"Well, Tsuade will be pissed off if I don't get there soon." Naruto said, leaving Kiba and Hinata at the crossroads.

When he finally made it to the Hokage tower, he was roughly shoved into the proper office. There, grinding her teeth in frustration, was the old hag herself and, surprisingly, Neji.

"Oh Naruto," she started as the door was slammed behind him, "please sit down, there's something that I have to discuss with you." he politely took a seat on one of the few chairs not piled with paperwork.

"What's up? Pervert-sensei blackmailed you into going on a date and you need my help to get out?"

"Nothing so trivial." she said, shaking her head, but smiling at the joke. "Do you know who does shinobi work for the countries without hidden villages?"

"Don't they come to us?" Neji said skeptically.

"Yes, but only if they can afford to have the financial transaction written down, for more…unsavory jobs, they find a Shadow-nin."

"Hey, aren't there Shadow-nins competing in the Chunin exam?" Naruto asked his curiosity pricked.

"Yes…it them that I actually want to talk to you two about." she said, totally serious now. "You see, Shadow shinobi are very wide-spread and don't care who they have in their ranks, including several powerful Missing-nins. The reason why the hidden villages don't go after them as a whole is because they make sure that every Orochimaru type out there can't start amassing forces, they track down a majority of demons and kill them before they get too powerful, they keep a lot of Missing-nin from rampaging around the countries, can be hired as mercenaries if a country losses to many shinobi, have spies in almost every community, organization, and important group over two, and can easily match the number of any hidden village man to man." she finished.

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with me?" Naruto asked, slightly confused.

"Well, recently, they have been rather mysterious about their actions, and out of the blue, they said that they were going to attack me personally and the Leaf Shinobi as a whole if we didn't give them two things."

"And those things are…"

"You two."

"WHAT!" the almost war-cry echoed over the Hidden Village of Leaf

"Naruto!" Tsuade reprimanded the blond, "Not so loud." the blond smoldered in his seat, but remained quiet.

"I don't know why they want you, Neji I can understand, it happened before, that other countries have wanted the Huyga Clan's abilities…"

"Maybe they know about…" Naruto poked his stomach, more specifically, the demon seal. Neji gave him an odd look.

"The only person who knows about It would be Gaara of the Desert, but he hasn't been seen for about 2 months." Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto could see Neji's brow begin to furrow as he became progressively more confused. Tsuade coughed and changed the subject.

"They said that you could finish the exam, but when they come to collect you, you have to go."

"Couldn't we run off into the forest?" Naruto asked.

"No, I spent some time in one of their city, then I lost ever cent I had, and then some. I left the next morning and the police were on me in maybe…an hour. That was back when I had a heard of lucky pigs. They could track you two down as soon as they find out you've left; then kill me as a breech of contract."

"…So we can't get out of this." Neji said, staring off into space.

"Pretty much." Tsuade concluded.

"Do you know when they plan to get us?" the pupil-less teen asked.

"No."

"What about the Shadow-nins competing in the Chuunin exam?" Neji asked,

"They're your age, could you kidnap two ninja in broad daylight?"

"So basically, you don't know anything?" Naruto asked glumly.

"Don't be disrespectful. I'm giving you an A-class mission." Tsuade said flatly, noting that Naruto perked up at that, "Report about whatever you can about Shadow-nins."

"We won't fail you!" Naruto said, almost officially adjourning the meeting.

_** Stop Here**_

The crowd roared in anticipation.

next chapter: the final round of the chuunin exam, excited? i thought not. well, feel free to press the little purple button in the right hand corner. i understand that it isn't very exciting, but i'm decent at fight scenes; give me a chance? love y'all. bye!


	4. the hours in an offhand way

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and company, their world, the organizations in that world, or anything else you read in the manga. I do own the characters I bothered to give personalities to and the organizations I put them in and I shall flame you to hell if you use them.

(space/line)_**  
**_

_** Start Here **_

The crowd roared in anticipation. Today was the first day of the second round/public round of the Chunin exam. Naruto was revved up and ready to go. Good too because his was the first match. He was going up against the Naturu kid. After his impressive show last year, the crowd was much more appreciative of him. After soaking up his praise, Naruto returned to tunnel vision and became focused on taking that punk down.

"He uses those yo-yos of his to tie up his opponents, but can use some more unusual weapons." he thought, "So maybe if I…" he trailed off as he made two Shadow Clones. Seemingly unsurprised by the increased number of opponents, Naturu's yo-yos flashed into view and swung around to the left and right. Naruto, all three of them, easily dodged them. Naruto, seeing his opponent's main weapons didn't appear to be much use, went in for the kill. Directing his clones to from a triangle of attack, Naruto thought that he would be done in…less than 2 minutes, but he was quite wrong. A sharp pain hit him on the forehead and he was thrown back. He felt his two clones disintegrate as they were given a direct attack. When he snapped back, he looked for what hit him. The only thing that could have counted, as weapons were three white cubes dotted with black paint, dice.

"What the hell?" Naruto thought, and then they blew up, violently.

"GAH!" he then landed with an undignified thump.

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL?" Naruto yelled, jumping away from another dice that landed in front of his feet, not a moment too soon, as it exploded milliseconds after he landed. Looking over at his opponent, Naruto recognized the demonic grin his opponent wore as the same one he wore while pranking. He looked just in time to see another yo-yo spin out at him. Jumping out of range again, he had to miss the handful of dice thrown from the other hand. As the dust settled, Naruto jumped at his opponent, cutting the yo-yo string as it flew towards him. His feet connected with Naturu's chest and knocked him to the arena floor. But then a pair of legs crossed his neck and pulled him towards the ground. But just before he landed, Naruto pushed hard with his arms before he landed and flipped out of the leg-hold. Before he lost his advantage, Naruto jumped on his back and put a kunai to his opponent's neck.

"Yield." Naturu said, just loud enough for the judges to hear.

(space/line)

Da Ten's and Hinata's fight resembled a dance more than a fight to the death. The Gentle Fist technique was slower than most styles, but Da Ten moved even slower. Through some mystical or magical force, not a single blow seemed to land. Disbelief raced across most of the audience's faces and Hinata's too as seemingly no blows landed on Da Ten.

"What the hell is going on?" Naruto asked from the competitor's box. But the area around the fighters shimmered like a mirage and the seemingly one sided battled quickly faded into reality. A large dibble of blood dripped out of Da Ten's face and large bruises formed over the largest chakra openings where they had been hit numerous times. However, a long white rope had snaked around Hinata and a quick pull would have been immobilized. But Da Ten was too worn out to give the last pull but Hinata had already been too entangled in her opponent's hair to deliver a final blow. The match was determined a tie.

(space/line)

Third up was Neji and Kaito. Neji assumed the now familiar Gentle Fist position and Kaito pulled out one of his not quite affectionately nicknamed fire-tubes. He took a shot at Neji but the longhaired teen dodged it easily. Kaito grabbed another fire-tube from his vest and shot a rapid wave of shots at Neji. A Heavenly Spin quickly took care of the fruitless attack. Neji then pounced aiming for the mess of chakra openings around the torso, he hit, but then felt a dull pain in his stomach, pulling away, Neji saw a deep graze oozing blood and staining his shirt. Just then, his opponent swung a leg at him. Neji blocked it easily with a forearm but another cut opened on his arm. Then realization hit him; the blade was attached to Kaito's shoe. Using his blood limit, Neji found strategically placed spikes roped on to Kaito's body. The next time he hit, he aimed for an area unprotected by an array of knives; his first hit had just missed being impaled in a painful number of places. But his effort was in vain as Kaito shifted at the last moment, causing Neji to hit a knife in the tissue between his first finger and thumb. Jerking back, Kaito almost landed another kick but thankfully missed. Neji took Kaito's relatively long recovery time to grab at his throat, cutting off his air. Semi-blocking the chakra holes in his spinal cord caused Kaito to go limp, leaving Neji the winner.

(space/line)

Finally, Horo and Mitsu were up. Most people didn't see what happened, not even the Huygas, the cameras barely caught it. Horo tried to get her the same way he got his last unfortunate opponent. Then there was a lot of blood and the cloaked fighter was gagging and choking on the ground, his face turning rapidly worse colours. Within seconds, he was dead. But before anyone could react, Mitsu chopped off the corpse's head and vanished.

"Whahh?" Naruto asked, leaning forward. Suddenly, a commotion broke out in the box,

"What are you doing?" Neji yelled behind him. Naruto turned just in time to see Neji fall forward before a cloth was forced over his mouth and nose and he lost consciousness too.

_** Stop Here**_

Neither kidnapped boy...

So, what do you think? Can i write fight scenes, or is it as bad as my scriptwriting? sorry it's so sort. Any comment are aprriciated, i'm in a bit of a writing fever, so i'm constantly in a bit of a worry about the quality, which, i'm sure aegis phoenicis (my beta once upon a time) will tell you, can vary dramatically, particularly in the spelling and grammer. ALTHOUGH (this is for those lovely admin of ours and those spineless suckers who report abuse for fun) i do proof-read and correct all my work, several times. But as i've finally started turning the creative crank in my head for the first time in a year, i haven't reread every word twenty times in as many weeks. so yeah, drop a line, particularly if you're one of those people who've read it all the way through (thanks by the way). toodles said the pugs to the poodles in the puddles.

By the way, did i mention that the first chunk is over and you get to actually see where the story takes place (or at least, get a feel for my version of the ninja world and the people in it)? okay, maybe that isn't as exciting to most people as it is to me (does hinata finger poke) well, see you later!


	5. kicking around a piece

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and company, their world, the organizations in that world, or anything else you read in the manga. I do own the characters I bothered to give personalities to and the organizations I put them in and I shall flame you to hell if you use them.

_**Start Here**_

Neither kidnapped boy remembered much from that point 'till this one, but if they concentrated enough, they could pick out half memories, blurred, and often ending in someone yelling

"He's waking up, quick, pass me the bottle!" then they were put back into a drugged sleep. Judging from what he saw in those brief moments of half-consciousness, Naruto judged that maybe four days had passed since the Chunin exams, but he never would have guessed where they ended up after those five, actually, days.

(space/line)

Naruto's sleep was brutally cut short when he was shoved onto his feet.

"Wakie wakie sleepy-head" an overly cheerful voice said, keeping him upright. The next thing that woke him up the smell, it was a slightly fresh but rotten stench covered with a smell of fresh water. Blinking his eyes, the first thing he noticed was the patchy sunlight. Next were the amazingly tall and thick trees looming out of the water.

"Wow," he whispered, glancing up at the thick foliage of the trees above him.

"Cool ain't it?" Naturu said, sticking his head besides Naruto's. "Close your mouth, it's unbecoming." Naruto blush, looked down, and, of course, closed his mouth. After he had taken his gaze from the sky, he notice the almost lattice like boardwalks that were raised about a foot above the water and let to small buildings built on stilts and…the trees? Now that he looked closely, Naruto noticed rope ladders, small flights of stairs, doors, and window hidden among the natural vegetation.

"Where are we?" he asked, realizing for the first time he was in someplace completely different.

"Welcome to Everglade." Kaito said chirpily, "Hurry up Kaito, Madame doesn't wait all day!" What, Naruto thought turning around, to see an exact replica of Kaito sullenly get off a small wagon that was perched on the edge of dry land. Naruto started at the replicas until they noticed.

"What, never seen a set of twins before?" they said in perfect unison, making Naruto wonder just how long he'd been out.

A messenger was waiting for them at the first crossroad the group came to.

"House the new ones and take them to the Office in the morning." He said, had them sign to verify that the message had been received, jumped on his bike and off before you could blink.

"We're not taking them," one of the twins said.

"But you don't even know their signs." Da Ten pointed out.

"I don't care; there isn't any room for either of them in our place." The same twin said stubbornly.

"Blonde's tanuki, other's bennu." The other twin said quietly fiddling with an odd wind up doll composed of sharp, dangerous items, but not quietly enough to be missed by the energetic teen that didn't want houseguest.

"Well then, it's settled, bird-boys' stick together and Naturu gets the other one. I'm going home, good night." Then he grabbed his twin and ran.

"See you tomorrow," Mitsu said, disappearing in the shadows. Da Ten had already left without saying a word, and the rest of the carts had left. That left Yuri (Sasuke), Naruto, Neji (who was still groggy and seemed to have a headache), and Naturu.

"Well, anti-song birds should stick together. Too much silence makes me nervous." Naturu said, pulling Naruto along one of the many walkways and out of sight, but not before Naruto could give Sasuke a deadly glare.

Several silent seconds ticked by after the indignant yelling of one obnoxious blond faded into silence.

"You've screwed most people over, particularly the genin. I hope you found what you were looking for."

"No, I didn't, I found something better." Sasuke said cryptically, "so, do you want a metaphorical roof over your head?" he said, walking away. Since Neji didn't have anywhere else to go, he followed, cursing fate.

(space/line)

Sasuke led him to the edge of the city, where the trees weren't as dense. There wasn't a building in sight and the path ended sharply in a ragged edge. But Sasuke didn't stop; instead, he jumped up into a nearby tree. When Neji jumped too, he noticed the worn edges, like this was a popular step up to heaven. They climbed higher and higher into the sky, reaching the top of the foliage, so high that they could see the night sky that had dawned during their travels. It was then that they made it to Sasuke's "house".

"You live in a nest?" Neji said with disbelief. Amazingly, it was no exaggeration, Sasuke's home made of a number of large branches supporting stiff mats on which meager belongings such as a cot and camp-stove stood. But there was a thick woven canopy of living branches above, so there was some protection against the elements, but not much, as there were no walls.

"Bit chilly, but nice view." Sasuke commented staring out over the swampy grasslands to the west.

"Why don't you have walls or, something to keep the wind and rain out?" Neji asked, bewildered by the arrangements.

"You'll see in a few days." Sasuke said, smirking before tossing Neji a sleeping bag from the sack under the cot.

(space/line)

Across town, Naruto was having a similar experience. But his host lived near the middle of the city and in a tree.

"Neat place you have." Naruto said, glancing around dark room, the only illumination a small window set high in the twelve-foot ceilings. From what he could see, a solid floor was placed halfway up the wall, which he assumed to be the bedroom as there was no bed on the main level.

"It's alright, better then living in Dormitories or the Office in my opinion." Naturu said, sliding a chain lock into place.

"What's the Dormitories and the Office?" Naruto asked.

"The Dormitories is like a boarding house for people like us and the Office is like our headquarters, our leader lives there, all important paperwork happens in there, that sort of thing." Naturu replied, rooting around in a large trunk. He straightened, holding a blanket.

"Do you know why the Office asked for you particularly?" Naturu asked, laying the folded blanket over the back of a slightly mildewed couch.

"No." Naruto said, half-lying.

"Well, whatever's inside you must be important if they risked civil war to get you and girly on our side." Naturu said flatly.

"Inside me?" Naruto asked, a slight panic in his voice, how would a guy he'd never really met know about the Kyuubi?

"Yeah, the demon inside you." Naturu said, like informing a person that they knew you were a demon was an everyday thing.

"What?" Naruto said, in a fully-fledged panic now. "How do you know?"

"You're tanuki, you have a medium/small ground dwelling mammal demon inside you, I'm one too, don't worry about it," he added, trying to quell the fear he saw swelling in Naruto's face. "But could you not tell anyone we had this conversation?" he asked after realizing something "You're suppose to learn about this tomorrow."

"Um…okay."

"Great" a look of relief spread over his face. "Now you can sleep on the couch for tonight, I'm sure they'll have a place set up for you tomorrow." His host jumped the six feet to the second level, "Good night." He called down.

"Good night" Naruto yelled back.

_**Stop Here**_

The next morning didn't dawn well

thank you for you input rralou! it is going remarkable fast though...i blame the caffine. but just for you, i went and re-edited the chapter after this one (so six?) so you and those who think like you (myself included) can consider that the first 'real' chapter if you like. although, if you've been keeping track (which i doubt anyone is) about thirty five days have past. but i agree, the chapters are a little too concise. but don't worry, the next day takes three chapters to slog through (and the only thing i can complain about is another tournement). it's a full day yes, but still, even i think three chapters is a little too much. but hey! if people are willing to read my stuff, i'm glad, even if they flame me. so...press the pretty purple button?


	6. of ground in your hometown

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and company, their world, the organizations in that world, or anything else you read in the manga. I do own the characters I bothered to give personalities to and the organizations I put them in and I shall flame you to hell if you use them.

**_Start Here_**

The next morning didn't dawn well in the middle of Everglade. But it had dawned enough to become annoying. Wrinkling his eyes up, Naruto tried to turn around, but bashed his nose against the generally uncomfortably material of the couch. Giving up on the idea of more sleep, Naruto resigned to consciousness and got up. When he looked around, Naturu wasn't in the house, but the door was open, letting more bleak sunlight into the house. Walking out, he saw Naturu cooking some sort of breakfast with the rest of the inhabitants of the loose square that the house was in. In reality, he was burning breakfast and stuttering through a conversation with a plain looking girl who's only distinguishing feature were brilliant lines of freckles across her nose. Walking up to the fire, Naruto plunked himself down on Naturu's other side.

"Morning." Naruto yawned, still not quite awake,

"Oh you're up." Naturu said; handing him a half singed roll stuffed with some sort of meat.

"Hey Naturu, who's your friend?" freckle girl asked, peering over his shoulder.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto said, beaming with newfound energy.

"Pleasure to meet you Uzumaki-san. I'm Nieco Gustala."

"Nice to meet you too Nieco-san, but please Naruto-kun's fine." Naruto replied, adding a bit more sincerity to his smile.

"Actually, Gustala's my family name, but you must use my given name if I'm to use yours." Nieco replied with a slight giggle.

Breakfast went well and ended on a happy note. Then Naturu and Naruto left for the Office, unbeknownst to them, after they boys announced their destenation and left, the once happy mood dampened drastically.

(space/line)(space/line)(space/line)(space/line)(space/line)

"Hey!" Naruto yelled when he saw the silent and moody boys coming their way. "Where'd you stay?" he asked, jumping to Neji's side.

"My place." Sasuke said from behind the blonde.

"I didn't ask you." Naruto snapped before turning back to Neji. Naruto talked in an amiable nature. Halfway to their destination, Da Ten joined them, her hair done in numerous braids and pinned with pins with bells attached.

"You're late." She said flatly.

"Late for what?" Naturu asked, plainly confused.

"Ah no!" Sasuke said with a pained look, "the Choosing."

"Oh shit!" Naturu said, "We've got to get going!"

"What are we late for?" Naruto yelled.

"The next leader's going to be chosen today." Sasuke said back, "Mitsu's one of the candidates for the position and she'll fry us alive if we're late."

They made it to the Office in half the time it should have. The Office was the only building that didn't belong in the natural landscape. The metallic doors in the whitewash walls led into a blue mosaic lobby with gentle, concaved coloums and rounded edges on the walls. However, the architecture was lost on the group of teens as they raced through the doors with so much force the tiles chipped where the door ricocheted off the wall, not that they noticed that detail either.

"The observation room for the Choosing is down the back stairwell second door on your left!" the receptionist yelled as they ran past. Contrasting the beautiful lobby, the stairwells had water damage and the most noticeable feature were the half tarnished brass railings that they slid down. They made it to the bottom of the staircase, turned down the hall, then dashed through the second door on the left. Already it was full of family and friends of those battling for the position of leader of the Shadow. The group of five squeezed themselves into the small right corner of the window. The battlers (all 12 of them) were gathered in a large ring, but with a low ceiling compared to others of its size.

"They're all so young." Neji marveled. Indeed, the youngest was under thirteen, but the oldest was barely eighteen, if that.

"But their all the best, the best fighters, the best thinkers, or a combination." Da Ten said almost wistfully, gently jingling.

"And Mitsu's one of them." One of the twins said proudly, appearing from seemingly nowhere and suspending himself from the ceiling.

"It's mostly because of her blood limit you know." The other one said, crawling like a giant spider to the middle of the window. "There are lots of other blood limits in the city."

"But you do have to admit, hers is one of the most unique traits you can inherit." Da Ten.

"What can she do?" Naruto asked,

"You'll find out." Da Ten said as the lights dimmed in the observation box.

"The rules are as follows," a voice said over a powerful speaker in the middle of the ceiling, "the snake coiled around your necks will bite you if you would have been dealt a fatal blow, it will knock you out. Do not deliver the final blow, if you do, you WILL be charged with murder. If you are bitten, stay down; you won't be stepped on. I repeat DO NOT KILL ANYONE. Good luck, good health, begin in three, two, one." As the countdown finished, a flurry of activity began below. Within the first half minute, a quarter of the participants had been bitten. After the first fifteen minutes of destructive blurs, only two distinct battles, and six fighters, remained. Each person was focused on their own battles, so no one noticed the steady drips that landed silently admit the violence below. Suddenly, a dark glow started appearing in almost satanic designs. Then, a particularly zealous fighter raised his arms in victory as his opponent fell to the floor, the paralyzing quality of the snake venom taking effect. He smeared blood over his face and stuck out a forked tongue. He dropped his hand and looked around for his next victim. Suddenly, he was the next victim as the blood that had stained the floor around him morphed into grappling hands and glued him to the floor as it snaked up his body. The snake bit him shortly before he drowned in the blood. The screaming caught the attention of the other assailants, another one of whom had been eliminated. They looked around for the mystery attacker, until they too felt the tugging of blood at their feet. Then they were too busy saving themselves to worry about the person controlling the liquid.

"That's Magicblood moves, aren't they?" a stout woman asked her companion, a tall man.

"Haven't seen on of those in at least three years." He said like they were comparing antique vases instead of ruthless fighters. The mystery attacker came down from the sky, throwing needles that seemed to come out of her fingertips.

"That's the last of Magicbloods, Solidblood, and Rag Dolls." A grungy looking man said, cutting into the stout woman's conversation. Back in the ring simple cuts on two fighters were quickly attacked by the blood, which forced itself into the cuts, no matter how shallow. Quickly the influx of extra blood forced itself out of the holes in the body (the eyes, nose, and mouth) and they were bitten.

"My mother always said inbreeding breeds idiocy." The woman said offhand, "I hope she looses."

Mitsu, the blood user, hit the floor the same time as her now "dead" opponents, retracting her blood from their veins. Suddenly, a flash of movement caught everybody's eye as the last opponent jumped out of the shadows, a halberd-type weapon raised, aiming for her back. In one smooth motion, she cut her wrist and raised it behind her. The gush of blood that spurted out solidified, and the would-be-winner was impaled. The audience fell into silence, each holding his or her breath. Then the attacker came out of shock and indicated he was alive. But he was closer to death than the living, so Mitsu won. ("Damn," the woman said.)

"Congratulations, Bounty hunter Sangsei Mitsu, you have obeyed the rules, and beaten your enemies, you are the next leader of the Shadow." The voice said over the speaker. Mitsu bowed to the observation room, then to a window on the other side; then promptly fainted.

"Oh shit," the twin on the wall said, "We'd better get down there before she wakes up, Kaito…" but the brother on the ceiling had already left.

"We still should go down and congrats the new Shadow." Naturu said, already pushing through the crowd.

_**Stop Here**_

"Where am I?"

so what did you think? i personally like this fight better, but it still sucks. ah well. well, to miako, the tanuki thing is kinda a side note that i can go deep into but won't. while i thank you for the complement on my eye sight, i based the small/medium mammal demon thing on the size of the animal. you must agree that compared with the rest of the animal world, a fox is rather petit. there's a diffrent catagory for reptiles, small/medium mammals, large mammals, birds, fish, water mammals, amphibions, and shell fish currently (although i've only named...three catagories) the point of that aspect is less what each charcter is, but rather, how Kaito knew. so i hope that cleared it up a bit. any other queries, questions, concerns, comments, suggestions, or flames can be summited in the purple box that pops up after you press the pretty purple button. till next time!


	7. waiting for someone or

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and company, their world, the organizations in that world, or anything else you read in the manga. I do own the characters I bothered to give personalities to and the organizations I put them in and I shall flame you to hell if you use them.

_**Start Here**_

Naruto marveled at his surroundings, finally able to grasp the concept that he and Gaara weren't two of a kind. There were people who could relate to what they went through, living as demons of the village. That would also explain why all the old families (Uchina, Hyuuga, etc.) had been made sure that they were never associated with him, they were afraid Kyuubi's wildness might affect their own demons.

"Friends!" The bat man yelled when the chattering started up again at the mention of the Carnival. When that didn't work he inhaled deeply then yelled "Quiet!" with an odd vibrating quality that sent pain shooting through Naruto's head. Silence settled over the field again as the echoes of the yell died. "Two days hence, we shall begin the water races, at high noon from this very pool." He stated, pointing to the pool that rested in a crescent in front of the stage. "Any persons who qualifies and wishes to participated may purchase a map to the course with a small entry fee." He added without commenting on the requirements, "Also," he yelled before the noise could start again, "maps and registration for the air and land races are available, and can be found at the Office lobby. And the closing festive will be held here, just after the final race." He said, this time, mutterings from the crowd in varying accents, weather by a muddled state of some vocal cords or a plain accent of Common being spoken by people from different places, overwhelmed everything else any and all words that the leader said. Then he screeched again, this time Naruto saw some of the Demons with more delicate hearing fall over in pain.

"Now for a depressing announcement, at the end of this year's Carnival, I will be relinquishing my position as Tehbkage (leader of the Shadow)" he added mournfully as there was a collective gasp from the audience, "Because it is my last Carnival," the Tehbkage continued, voice back to it's happy tone, "I can guarantee it's going to be one of the best anyone, mortal or demonic, has ever had." He finished with a flourish as the crowd yelled, hollered, and uttered other, more beastly, exclamations of joy.

(space/line)

Naruto was walking out of the stadium, trying to remember how he got there; the journey to the theater was mostly a blur of adrenalin. Looking up to the skies, he couldn't see Neji or Sasuke among the numerous forms flying to unknown places. He was so busy looking for his friends that he didn't sense somebody creeping up on him he placed a hand on his shoulder. Gasping and spinning around, kunai in hand, Naruto was surprised to find that sand, of all things, ripped the kunai out of his hand. Okay, seeing as it was Gaara who snuck up on him, maybe it wasn't much of a surprise. What wasn't too surprised at the two folded ears that peeked out from the redhead's unruly hair.

"Hey Gaara!" Naruto squeaked, unsure of how to act in light of the sudden appearance of his friend (?).

"Naruto, I was wondering when I would see you here." Gaara said in a clipped manner.

"You mean that you've known about this place?" Naruto squeaked, but slightly deeper, his confidence returning with the receding of the sand.

"You didn't?" Gaara said skeptically, twisting his face in such a way that his eyebrows would have enforced his voice if he had any.

"Why doesn't anyone tell me these things?" the blond huffed, crossing his arms irately, feeling his large ears turn down like an angry cat's.

"I thought you had a fox demon inside you." Gaara mentioned out of the blue, probably because of Naruto's enormous ears, which resembled cat ears more than fox ears (he instantly grabbed at them when he noticed their size and blushed).

"I do, but I don't know what's up with the ears." Naruto murmured, still embarrassed.

"You should find out." Gaara said, turning around a walking away.

"Wait, why should I?" Naruto yelled, running after him

"Because you should." Gaara said a slightly irritated edge on his voice.

"I should? Like that's a-whoa." Naruto cut himself off. They had stopped at a gigantic structure made of rope ladders, boardwalks, hanging boxes that were probably rooms, hammocks, catwalks, nets, pools, and thick branches. In front was a simple sign that said 'Demonic Dormitories' on faded wood that was starting to mold.

"I suppose that's where you're staying?" Naruto said in a slightly breathy voice.

"Yes."

"Where do you get a room?"

"The Office."

"Oh…well then, I need one, a room that is, er-see you later." Naruto said, turning around and walking towards the only artificial building he saw on the short walk from the stadium to the Dormitories.

(space/line)

Well, the next morning, after spending the night filling out paperwork, he had a boxlike cubbyhole in the Dormitories for his own. So the first thing he did was crawl into it (it was one of the larger ones, but the ceiling was so low he had to get down on all fours) and fall asleep.

He was awakened by someone knocking on his wall as they dangled outside. Blinking blearily, Naruto looked groggily at the boy who was a few years younger perhaps and dressed in a rather ill chosen uniform.

"A message for Uzumaki Naruto." He said, handing him a small envelope before hopping back down to the ground.

"Wah?" Naruto mumbled, breaking the wax seal on the envelope. Inside was a small invitation written on thick paper in a thin calligraphy. The invite stated in three short lines to come to the Office that day at noon for a meeting and a lunch with the Tehbkage; RSVP not required. Glancing up at the sky, Naruto noticed the time was nearing noon, so he jumped out of his second story home and started a nice, leisurely walk towards the whitewashed Office.

When he got there, he showed his invitation to the receptionist there and got directed to the top floor. So, the fox boy trudged up the steps, all ten flights, until he reached the top floor. Opening it, he entered a rather well kept, if not dull, office. Sitting at the rather large desk was not only the Tehbkage, but also Keiyo, Kaito, Da Ten, Sasuke, Neji, and Naturu.

"Uzumaki, good for you to join us." The Tehbkage said, exposing pearly teeth in a slightly fanged smile.

(I'd end the chapter there, but it's much too short…poohie)

After Naruto had sat down between a twin and Da Ten and had gotten a rather, full plate and a large cup of tea placed in front of him, the Tehbkage cleared his throat to start the luncheon turned meeting.

"As you know, in four days, your friend Mitsu will be appointed the new Tehbkage. Soon after, she'll begin a tour of the other shinobi nations to introduce them to the new leader of the Shadows. I'll be honest for those relatively new to the Shadow, they hate us. So, she'll need protection to make sure that nothing deadly ends up in her. That's where you fit in. There'll be an official security squad, but then there will be you, her entourage. You'll be our trump card, acting as civilians but actually her last line of defense. It's a long term commitment, I won't lie, you'll be tangled up for three years or until you die. So, who's willing?" There was a short silence.

"I-I'm in." Kaito said from behind his teacup.

"You can count on me!" Naruto said, ignoring Kyuubi's _loud-mouthed idiot_ in the back of his mind.

"I'll go too." Sasuke said softly

"I suppose it's what I was brought here to do." Neji sighed

"It'll give me an excuse not to see my wife for a while." Keiyo said, laughing.

"Mitsu'll need someone to protect her from all these men folk." Da Ten said solemnly, casting her vote.

"Marvelous," the Tehbkage said, drawing the word out.

_**Stop Here**_

okay then, i'm feeling rather pleasent so i'll label this the end of Scene 12 ish and leave it at that. Probably best that i do because the next bit is still under wraps, even to me...so yeah! Miako, you know, you're absolutely right, a tanuki is a racoon dog thing, i had no clue. the names i have for the demon classes are a tich random because i got them out of a three inch, mini poster sized hardcover book that was cutting the circulation from my legs. so yeah, you learn something new everyday. and i actually take complement about my slight(?) insanity. and i'm building up to the fight with sasuke, so wait, i'm playing up on naruto's ability to ignore things that bug him (see: biased villagers, sakura's hatard for him, etc) drop me an email and i'll give you a double reviewer's sneak peak: ie. the thing that finally get Naruto to pummel Sasuke. ta!


	8. something to show you the way

Wow, been a while since i update, at least a month...then of course, not too many people made it to the last chapter...sigh...ah well, this keeps me out of jail

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and company, their world, the organizations in that world, or anything else you read in the manga. I do own the characters I bothered to give personalities to and the organizations I put them in and I shall flame you to hell if you use them.

**_Starting Here_**

Naruto woke up to a sharp, and very loud snap, like someone had broken a giant's bone. He stuck his head out just in time to see a whole host of dark shapes gliding past at an astonishing speed under the water. As he blinked his watering eyes in the bright noon sun, the first wave of cheering from the spectators hit his large ears. Flicking the sand-coloured tail he sub-consciously noticed the day before in annoyance, Naruto stuck his head back into his den, waiting to get use to the high noise level. Finally, after maybe fifteen minutes in his dark hole, Naruto came out into the open. But the yelling crowds that had been there were gone, making the street lonely once more. Off in the distance, a loud cloud of happy sounds exploded, disturbing birds from their roosts even around the Dormitories.

"Why aren't you out watching the race?" an old man said from his perch in the walkways of the Dormitories, drooping beagle ears flopping down in his face.

"What race?" Naruto asked, blinking.

"Why the water race!" the old man replied, eyes hidden in layers of skin opened wide at the boy's ignorance.

"Why do they call it the water race?" Naruto asked the drooping man.

"Because only aquatic demons and their hosts can enter young fool." The beagle man said, amazement at Naruto's blindness clearly imprinted on his voice.

"Wow, that's cool, do you know where they are now?" Naruto asked, curious to a fault.

"They should be lapping the course soon; they always start at the stadium and do three laps." The beagle man said.

"Thanks mister!" Naruto said, jumping out of his hole and onto the rope bridge two levels down.

"And we have the first resignation of the second lap!" a particularly loud bird-boy who was acting as commentator yelled, "That makes thirteen, only seven left folks." Naruto hadn't needed to walk even a minute before the crowds that followed the race hit him. Actually, remarkably close, a crow-winged friend was pulling the exhausted racer out of the water, and upon closer examination, Naruto noted they looked familiar. When he got closer, his eyes opened in shock, who would have guessed that not only were Kakashi and Iruka together, judging by the apologetic kiss Kakashi gave the swimmer, but also demonic?

"Iruka?" Naruto asked, doubting it was his childhood mentor under the triple-toned and rubbery skin.

"Naruto!" the dolphin man said, confirming it was Iruka, jumping out of the loose hug he was in. "Err-this isn't what it looks like…" he said almost rhetorically. "But then of course, it's a little hard for it to be **not** what it looks like…" he rambled.

"Err-Iruka, what are you talking about?" Kakashi said, slightly worried.

"If you're talking about the demon thing, I'm fine with that." Naruto said, blinking.

"Demon? Oh yes, the demon…" Iruka said, a look of enlightenment spreading across his face.

"Yeah, what else would I be talking about?" Naruto said quizzically, "Although, I am a little pissed you didn't tell me you had a demon too." He added sourly with a face. There was a dramatic pause until Iruka sighed,

"I can't deal with your brand of stupidity today…" he said before collapsing.

"So Naruto," Kakashi said, hoisting the unconscious teacher over his shoulder, "are you staying at the dormitories too?"

"Um yeah, I moved in yesterday." Naruto said, confusion overtaking his mind

"Well then, we had better get him soaked before his skin dries out." Kakashi said, indicating the man slung over his shoulder. But before they could start on their way back to the Demon Dormitories, someone came running up the path from the Office. As he got closer, Naruto recognized Keiyo, one of the twins that had brought him to Everglade only four days ago, wait, he was pretty sure it was Keiyo, Kaito was much more withdrawn and wouldn't be waving energetically to him.

"Hey, the Office has some stuff they think you might want, so they sent me to fetch you. They said the sooner you came the better." Keiyo said, puffing.

"Oh well then, let's go." Naruto said cheerfully, "Bye Kakashi-sensei" he added as he ran off.

"So that was your teacher?" Keiyo asked as they walked quickly towards the whiteness of the Office.

"Yup, and I wasted abut a million hours of my life waiting for him." Naruto grumbled dramatically.

"Oh come on, he can't be that late consistently." Keiyo said,

"But he is! He's usually two hours late and then he tells us some lame-brain excuse like he was helping an old lady with her groceries." Naruto huffed,

"But if he is always late, how did he make it to his exams on time?" Keiyo said.

"Well, he once said that he was on time to important things…" Naruto trailed off, defeated. He was rather disturbed when his acquaintance broke into hysterics and had to stop while he held his gut.

"Oh god kid, you crack me up." He wheezed between bouts of laughter, "hey, you have to come to my place sometime, I think you'd like it. You know Yuri, right?" Keiyo said, continuing on their way after he recovered.

"Yuri, oh, yeah I know him," Naruto said, expression darkening.

"Oh, well, maybe not Yuri, err-Naturu's not here, hey, you know what, I'll take you there myself after we get your stuff." Keiyo said hurriedly, seeing the smoldering detest in Naruto's stance and tone. So, with fewer words mentioned than before, they made it to the Office, Keiyo to hand in a mission report (the friend who had been told to find Naruto and pass on the message had waylaid him when he was making his way to the Office to hand in the report because he didn't know who the blond was), Naruto to pick up a large overnight bag that he recognized as one of the few non-essential items he owned. Inside were a second set of clothes (the dark ones), a toothbrush, and several items he probably should have had before now.

"Oh, and if you see Hyuuga-san, could you tell him to come for his items as well?" the lady behind the desk in the second basement said overly politely that obviously hid a world-wearied outlook. Hey, if you worked in the Lost and Found and the Pick Up center for an entire city, as the only employee in sight, you would hate the world too.

(space/line)

Keiyo was still there when Naruto trudged back up the mildew infested stairs (AN this is an actual staircase and I love it, but it's being torn down tear) and they made their way to the dormitories (which was along the way to Keiyo's "place"). After dropping off the sack into his den, Naruto and Keiyo took a side path to another major street and several easily remembered twists and turns later, they found themselves standing outside a tall, massive tree that had been grown around a square, wooden room. In the branches, a small house could be seen, and a staircase led into a lower level that might have been completely underwater. Hung over the door was a simple sign that read "Live Music After Ten Glasses".

"Cute name." Naruto commented, a pace behind Keiyo.

"Wife's family's traditional source of income." He said, fake cheeriness imprinted on his voice.

"Wife?" Naruto gasped, Keiyo was barely a year older then he, if that.

"Arranged marriage, but we live with it, but she still makes me play whenever I'm in town." He added spitefully.

"What do you play?" Naruto asked

"Guitar and vocals." Keiyo said, unlocking the door.

"Darling, I brought someone to help with the spring cleaning!" he yelled when the walked in. Naruto's eyebrows shot up when he saw the inside of the bar. They were in the box; a large dance floor and a stage mostly filled the interior, around the edge was a tall shelf with stools pushed under it for seating. But despite the name, there was no bar, or anywhere to serve drinks. Then he spied a staircase that snakes around the edge of the room and up through the ceiling that probably lead to an upper level where the drinks were served. The staircase also danced down past the floorboards.

"Finally, you said you were just going out to drop off some paperwork." A feminine voice barked from the ceiling, and down the stairs waltzed a girl with violently fuchsia hair that danced in an ambient breeze in a dress made of patchwork neon colours. "How dare you stay out this long? You know how busy it'll be tonight, and we need to air this place out, and the new supplies need to be picked up, and I can't do either of those chores, but someone needs to get out all the summer menu stuff, so I hope your 'friend' can be in three places at once, or I'll need to get my brothers over to help." She ranted, coming closer and looking more and sounding more like a tornado that had hit an unfortunate tropical bird.

"Don't worry darling," Keiyo said, sounding exasperated, "my 'friend' has unlimited energy, I'm sure you can work him into the ground, he can take care of the windows while I go to get the supplies, leaving you with more just enough work that involves running around to make up for the high-fat, high-calorie dinner I'm going to force down your skinny throat." He said, adding a particular drop of sarcasm onto the last part.

"Fine, but he had better be as good as you say, or you're going to have to find another bed for the next year. The groceries for the next months are being dropped off at the regular place, and make sure that you count the number of bottles, the clerks like to dip into the stash sometimes." Keiyo's wife grumbled at him before Keiyo turned, gave Naruto a "thanks, you're screwed" smile, and ran out.

"Rude bastard," the girl muttered before turning a wide (and very fake) grin to him and sticking out her hand.

"Pleased to meet you, I'm Moyocco Inari." She said pleasantly, but there was the edge of a whine still present on her voice.

"Uzumaki Naruto." The blonde said excitedly to hide the anxiety of meeting another girl with multiple personalities (he was beginning to expect all girls to be creepy in that manner by now).

"Well, we had better be preparing this place for summer now, shouldn't we?" she said sweetly, but the authoritarian edge on it sent shivers down his spine and he fully realized why Keiyo was so excited to go out.

(space/line)

Naruto quickly found out that the box wasn't actually nailed together, and thus, was relatively easy to disassemble, excluding the pieces that the tree had grown around, those had been nailed together. So Naruto (and several clones) were put to the task of taking apart the corners of the box, and placing odd mental frameworks covered in a completely sheer material in their place. While he was doing the heavy stuff, Moyocco-san ran around inside, adding little touches of colour to most things, and replacing many of the items such as menus and changing the weekly specials. Something that Naruto noted as being odd was the fact that Moyocco-san didn't use any chakra or any ninja tricks to do anything, odd for a ninja family to force a marriage to a civilian one.

Just as he finished, Keiyo returned, with three crates of booze carefully balanced and tied to his back. His wife rushed out to greet him, or rather, his cargo, just as the Narutos finished their assigned task.

"Done!" he cried cheerfully, jumping down and making the clones poof out of existence.

"Great," Moyocco-san said, "could you help us get these down to the cellar?" she asked politely, but with the undertone that said, "refuse and I'll skin you alive and make you like it". So Naruto took the top crated, leaving Keiyo with the other two, as, previously noted, Moyocco-san wasn't a ninja, thus didn't have the muscle mass to care anything remotely as heavy as the crate of alcohol. Instead, she unlocked the gate that barred the downward staircase, which in turn, lead to a chilly room under the dance floor.

"Set them down there", Moyocco-san said, pointing to a clear section of the floor, "and we can begin unpacking. Just read the label and put the bottles with the same type of liquor." She put the lantern she held on a hook in the ceiling and let Keiyo open the first crate. The next several hours were spent carefully organizing and documenting the beverages being unloaded, much to Naruto's dismay.

By the time that they finished, the sun had set and most people had left work, so it was time for the Moyocco couple to start working. Of course, they invited Naruto to stay for a while, so he did, and was served his first alcoholic beverage. Or at least, his first alcoholic beverage he was informed of consuming (with Jiraiya as a teacher, who knows what sorts of things he had been exposed to). Surprisingly, the bar quickly filled up and while most people chose to sit and have their drinks on the upper level (which sported the bar as well as a long shelf/table and numerous stools that acted as seating), soon the lower level filled with people demanding music, so rather disturbing dance tracks began playing, much to the other patrons' delight.

Then, barely three hours after the bar (which now resembled a club more than a bar but was legally classified as a bar, not a pub mind you, a bar) opened, a bell rang ten times to the pleasure of the dancers. To Naruto's (yes, he was still there) surprise, after the yelling died down, everyone dropped into a silence so complete that the crickets, who had been trying to ignore the noise coming from the Ten Glasses, wondered if someone had killed the people inside and happily chirped their little non-existent hearts out. Then a rather obnoxious and loud but exciting brass sound broke the air and an equally obnoxious, but undeniably extremely talented, voice joined it and Keiyo, or Kaito, or rather, both of them appeared on the relatively small stage along with a drummer and a guitarist. One of the twins had a bizarre instrument that played more brass instruments then some small jazz bands. The other one was singing a loud song made up of fragmented sentences and garble, but at certain lines, a faction of the crowd would do a particularly weird dance move.

"Isn't Moyocco-sama dreamy?" the girl sitting some way from Naruto on the bar said like a Sasuke fangirl.

"Which one?" her friend giggled

"Keiyo duh, but Kaito has the whole mysterious equal sexy thing going." The first one said sagely, causing Naruto to snort into his glass. Kaito, mysterious? The poor sap was like a dormouse, except when he had one of his toys in his hand, a half memory from the wagon ride to Everglade surface, someone was yelling at Kaito when one of his inventions, he had assumed that it was one of the fire-pipes at the time, had blown up. Naruto had almost sat up that time, but someone who had run to get something in the wagon to put out the fire had seen him, and then drugged him.

"Pity he's married." The third girl sighed.

"And gay." The second girl giggled as the bubbles in her drink hit the back of her throat. At this point, Naruto decided that he should ignore them, and tried to, really. Luckily, they left shortly after.

(space/line)

By eleven, no one noticed that the band had left, as they had been steadily adding to the number of dancers on stage and handing out drinks (to paying customers only, of course). The band slipped out by going down to the cellar, and the handful of people sober enough to notice followed them to congratulate them on a good opening night for the summer. Naruto took this opportunity to try to elbow his way trough the crowd to the front door; by the time he made it out, the Moyocco twins and the rest of the small band as well as Inari had made it out to the boardwalk from the barred path that sneaked to the waterline. One twin held a bottle of liquor; the band's instruments were in their cases, lying on the path and in general, they looked content, Naruto stopped and looked at the happy picture they made, six friends, laughing in the moonlight. He suddenly felt jealous of the carefree life they seemed to lead, even though he knew that at least the twins had a double life with a more sinister road before them.

_Getting sentimental, aren't you?_ The Kyuubi whispered in his head

_I wonder what life would have been life for both of us would've been if I hadn't been sealed inside you._

I would probably be a happy, irritating child who had two parents and whose dream was to open a ramen shop. Naruto thought sourly, and a lot of kids would have parents too if you didn't attack the village.

_Now, that's irony there,_ the Kyuubi spat in reply.

Why? Thought Naruto, do you eat orphans or something?

_Get home; you might want to be sitting down when I tell you._ The Kyuubi whispered in his head, a spice of venom in her voice.

"This had better be good." Naruto grumbled out-loud, interest sparked, breaking into a light jog.

**_Stopping Here_**_  
_

So yes, that's that. and for the record, most of these little details don't really mean anything.  



	9. tired of lying in the sunshine

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and company, their world, the organizations in that world, or anything else you read in the manga. I do own the characters I bothered to give personalities to and the organizations I put them in and I shall flame you to hell if you use them.

yes i'm still continuing this, amazingly. but hey! can't blame a girl for trying.

* * *

He woke up to a sharp, and very loud snap, like someone had broken a giant's bone. He stuck his head out just in time to see a whole host of dark shapes gliding past at an astonishing speed under the water. As he blinked his watering eyes in the bright noon sun, the first wave of cheering from the spectators hit his large ears. Flicking the sand-coloured tail he sub-consciously noticed the day before in annoyance, Naruto stuck his head back into his den, waiting to get use to the high noise level. Finally, after maybe fifteen minutes in his dark hole, Naruto came out into the open. But the yelling crowds that had been there were gone, making the street lonely once more. Off in the distance, a loud cloud of happy sounds exploded, disturbing birds from their roosts even around the Dormitories.

"Why aren't you out watching the race?" an old man said, drooping beagle ears flopping down in his face.

"What race?" Naruto asked, blinking.

"Why the water race!" the old man replied, eyes hidden in layers of skin opened wide at the boy's ignorance.

"Why do they call it the water race?" Naruto asked the drooping man.

"Because only aquatic demons and their hosts can enter young fool." The beagle man said, amazement at Naruto's blindness clearly imprinted on his voice.

"Wow, that's cool, do you know where they are now?" Naruto asked, curious to a fault.

"They should be lapping the course soon; they always start at the stadium and do three laps." The beagle man said.

"Thanks mister!" Naruto said, jumping out of his hole and onto the rope bridge two levels down.

"And we have the first resignation of the second lap!" a particularly loud bird-boy who was acting as commentator yelled, "That makes thirteen, only seven left folks." Naruto hadn't needed to walk even a minute before the crowds that followed the race hit him. Remarkably close, a crow-winged friend was pulling the exhausted racer out of the water, and upon closer examination, Naruto noted they looked familiar. When he got closer, his eyes opened in shock, who would have guessed that not only were Kakashi and Iruka (based on the hair) together, judging by the apologetic kiss Kakashi gave the swimmer, but also demonic?

"Iruka?" Naruto asked, doubting it was his childhood mentor under the triple-toned and rubbery skin.

"Naruto!" the dolphin man said, confirming it was Iruka, jumping out of the loose hug he was in. "Err-this isn't what it looks like…" he said almost rhetorically. "But then of course, it's a little hard for it to be **not** what it looks like…" he rambled.

"Err-Iruka, what are you talking about?" Kakashi said, slightly worried.

"If you're talking about the demon thing, I'm fine with that." Naruto said, blinking.

"Demon? Oh yes, the demon…" Iruka said, a look of enlightenment spreading across his face.

"Yeah, what else would I be talking about?" Naruto said quizzically, "Although, I am a little pissed you didn't tell me you had a demon too." He added sourly with a face. There was a dramatic pause until Iruka sighed,

"I can't deal with your brand of stupidity today…" he said before collapsing.

"So Naruto," Kakashi said, hoisting the unconscious teacher over his shoulder, "are you staying at the dormitories too?"

"Um yeah, I moved in yesterday." Naruto said, confusion overtaking his mind

"Well then, we had better get him soaked before his skin dries out." Kakashi said, indicating the man slung over his shoulder. But before they could start on their way back to the Demon Dormitories, someone came running up the path from the Office. As he got closer, Naruto recognized Keiyo, one of the twins that had brought him to Everglade only four days ago, wait, he was pretty sure it was Keiyo, Kaito was much more withdrawn and wouldn't be waving energetically to him.

"Hey, the Office has some stuff they think you might want, so they sent me to fetch you. They said the sooner you came the better." Keiyo said, puffing.

"Oh well then, let's go." Naruto said cheerfully, "Bye Kakashi-sensei" he added as he ran off.

"So that was your teacher?" Keiyo asked as they walked quickly towards the whiteness of the Office.

"Yup, and I wasted abut a million hours of my life waiting for him." Naruto grumbled dramatically.

"Oh come on, he can't be that late consistently." Keiyo said,

"But he is! He's usually two hours late and then he tells us some lame-brain excuse like he was helping an old lady with her groceries." Naruto huffed,

"But if he is always late, how did he make it to his exams on time?" Keiyo said.

"Well, he once said that he was on time to important things…" Naruto trailed off, defeated. He was rather disturbed when his acquaintance broke into hysterics and had to stop while he held his gut.

"Oh god kid, you crack me up." He wheezed between bouts of laughter, "hey, you have to come to my place sometime, I think you'd like it. You know Yuri, right?" Keiyo said, continuing on their way after he recovered.

"Yuri, oh, yeah I know him," Naruto said, expression darkening.

"Oh, well, maybe not Yuri, err-Naturu's not here, hey, you know what, I'll take you there myself after we get your stuff." Keiyo said hurriedly, seeing the smoldering detest in Naruto's stance and tone. So, with fewer words mentioned than before, they made it to the Office, Keiyo to hand in a mission report (a friend who had been told to find Naruto and pass on the message had waylaid him when he was making his way to the Office because he didn't know who the blond was), Naruto to pick up a large overnight bag that he recognized as one of the few non-essential items he owned. Inside were a second set of clothes (the dark ones), a toothbrush, and several items he probably should have had before now.

"Oh, and if you see Hyuuga-san, could you tell him to come for his items as well?" the lady behind the desk in the second basement said overly politely that obviously hid a world-wearied outlook. Hey, if you worked in the Lost and Found and the Pick Up center for an entire city, as the only employee in sight, you would hate the world too.

* * *

short but yeah 


End file.
